Another Way to Still Drive Meadowdale

Reconstructing lost tracks as playable environments for video games should be considered a charitable donation.

Jesse Laakso’s build of Meadowdale for play in a variety of racing simulators is just that; a race-fan community service. While the track is still under construction, it will ultimately be available for play in a variety of games, including popular titles such as RFactor and GT Legends. I can hardly wait to boot this up in GTL and take a spin around her in a Alfa GTA or 911 RSR. Jesse’s level of commitment to the details is what is really selling this for me. He has scoured the web, and reached out to the community at The Nostalgia Forum for assistance in ensuring the accuracy of everything from the iconic “PRAY” graffiti at the top of the hill, to the textures of the signage that separated the pit lane from the straight, to the construction methods of the pit garages.

For a work in progress, Jesse’s track looks remarkable complete. In the hands of a lesser developer, this would be considered finished and pushed out to the racing sim community. That Jesse is reserving release until it is as accurate as possible is fantastic—if nerve racking. Keep up the great work!

Check out the Nostalgia Forum thread for an indication of the level of effort and research that Jesse has been putting in to the project; as well as how eager the vintage racing community has been in helping him along.

I was there in 1968 for the Trans-Am race won by Mark Donahue, and let me tell you, this track reconstruction is very accurate. All you need now is Peter Revson’s Javelin and I’d be in heaven (My next door neighbor ran the AMC team and I got to meet Peter after the race. Quite a thrill for a 10 year old race fanatic). Again, awesome job this.

Found this site today and just wanted to say thanks for the comments guys! Sadly there has been no progress for a long time, but comments like these make sure that the track will be finished someday. Heck, I’ll try to get some work done tonight…